Damn I HATE PCs. But I need help with one...
 

My ex-wife's PC always has problems so I finally bought her a Mac. I brought the PC home so I can get some pics off it for her. But this piece of crap won't start.

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

So I insert the CD in the drive and restart but it keeps going back to this screen over and over and over and over. Doesn't seem to recognize the CD ROM drive.

Is there a way to force it to load from CD?

yep, change it in the bios

and i get there how?

:thumbsup

lol, are you serious?

when you boot up hit the ESC or Delete key (you will see a message on screen at boot that will tell you)... it will take you into the bios where you can change the order of drives on boot from C to D

hold delete at boot....(on 90% of the bios)...

No, I use Macs. I never have computer problems.

When I click ANY key it just powers off and restarts. Over and over and over and over. Holding keys = same.

PCs suck.

LOL I used a mac a couple of time... had 1 or 2 problems with it...and never could figure out how to solve them....


god bless pcs...

Thank you GFY! Holding F8 finally made this piece of crap computer boot from CD!!

how odd though! I never have a problem with my PC....

Here's why: you think of the EASIEST way to do something to fix a Mac. You were just over thinking it.

LOL mac vs pc debates are endless....


but ...I dunno macs just arent natural to me...Im a programmer, I know how stuff works (on a pc) and I know how to fix it if anything happens...


on a mac its a completely different environment...I know its better for multimedia and etc...its just ...not my thing ;)

Sorry, just got here, was going to tell you F8

oh my GOD this is annoying...

so it boots from disk. gets to the part where it asks what i want to do. i press R for repair. then it asks which installation i want to fix. there is only 1 option and it's number 1. it says hitting enter will cancel. so i type 1 and wait. nothing happens. i type 1 and enter... and it cancels. PCs suck!

If it's that fucked up don't try and repair.... just delete the partition and create a new one. That will wipe everything out and give you a clean install of windows

which completely defeats the purpose of rescuing the pics, right? won't it erase them all?

the repair console is fucked up...even I have trouble with it LOL....

and most of the time, it doesnt work...

(in your case though it could work since you are lacking a system folder....I really wonder how you lost it btw)

yup that will wipe out the hd... sometimes there is no other choice. I have tried for hours before to save data when my windows install was fucking up and I have learned the hard way to have a backup of important stuff so I don't waste time trying to fix something that is broken out of the box. Windows sucks but sigh... so does life sometimes

so... if i setup windows xp on the existing partition, will it erase the data on the drive?

Second option: if i hit C and create a partition in the unpartitioned space, will it delete the data?

another option would be to install her master drive into another machine as a slave drive then get the data off that way

mmmm if you create a new partition and install window xp on it, it wont erase the data but you might get something weird at boot up im not sure...

I only dual-boot with linux/windows partition...never did it with 2 windows xp actually! LOL

take out the hard drive and plug it into another windows machine if you have access to one. Should be able to move the pictures to the other windows computer that you booted off of.

WAIT!

Don't reformat it or repartition it yet. I have had this happen multiple times with some of my machines and, long story short, you are at the mercy of Windows :Oh crap . 9 times out of 10, it's nearly impossible to fully fix it. However, we have some very high dollar forensics software here in the studio that will retrieve the photos and/or files that you need to get off of it. If you want, let me know and I'll upload a copy for you to get some of the files off of the corrupt drive.

Offcourse not, get a computer instead of a Mac and that will change :thumbsup

This just keeps getting better and better.... I decide to have it reinstall without reformatting to /windows2/

it inspects the drive then tells me to restart to continue... then it all starts all over again not trying to restart from the cd... so i have to force it to. then the new install begins all over again.

i am SO not impressed.

intersting!

LOL do NOT boot from the cd...its a CD..of course it will do the same thing over and over...when you install windows, it puts the file it needs on your HD, and when you restart you boot from your HD..not from the cd

being as this is the only pc in the house at the moment, and it's fucked up, i couldn't download that software. unless it works on mac too. :)

No no no... it checks the disk to see if it can install... then tells me to restart to begin the install then.... well, read above.

Yeah, I forgot about that part; you have to run the software off of a separate drive. Dunno if it can be loaded on a Mac, let me go check.......

Too bad you don't live closer to me man... I'd tell you to drop it off and I'd fix it up for ya

Make your life simple: put that drive in a USB external box and connect to your MAC.
You will be able to get the pictures.

The symptoms shows a corrupt/partially erased OS. The same would happen on a Mac ( only difference is that you are more familiar and at ease ).

If you still want to try, look at http://www.bootdisk.com

Good luck.

Nope, sorry Donny. It supports HFS+ (Macintosh) file systems, but will only run off of Windows or Linux :(

So after trying over and over again to do the same thing because I'm too frustrated and stubborn to try something else it finally appears to have installed.

Computer restarts and the Windows XP logo shows.

Starts the new, fresh install setup process.....


then I get an error message that install didn't work. Something fucked up after all. So sorry.

Fuck.